Edmund Hillary's son, Peter, joins efforts to keep Ruapehu skifields in 'public hands'

Saturday, 29 April 2023

Mountaineer and adventurer Peter Hillary has become the patron of a group putting in a bid to run the Ruapehu skifields using a form of community ownership.

Mountaineer Peter Hillary has become the patron of a group aiming to keep the Ruapehu skifields in “public hands”, and which is crowdfunding in a bid to take over the beleaguered operation.

The Ruapehu Skifields Stakeholders Association said Saturday it hoped Hillary’s profile and involvement in spreading messages would boost success prospects for the bid it’s put in to run the Turoa and Whakapapa skifields.

“We’re hoping to raise the profile of the group in terms of helping our bid,” association chairperson Jason Platt told Stuff.

RNZ: Visitors return to Ruapehu, but where is the snow? (This video was first published on Stuff on August 7 2022.)

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) – a not-for-profit organisation involved with Whakapapa from the 1950s – had been running both Turoa and Whakapapa since 2002 before financial problems, exacerbated by Covid-19 and weather issues, led to it going into voluntary administration last year.

It’s still trading with Government assistance until the start of this winter’s season, with a meeting due to consider a long-term plan next month. Administrators Price Waterhouse Coopers have applied for that hui to be delayed till later in the year, said Platt.

The stakeholders association, initially started several months ago as an advocacy group, confirmed it had “pivoted to putting in a full bid on both skifields ourselves”.

Platt wouldn’t reveal the size of the bid for commercial reasons but said a large part of the cash was set to be raised by crowd-funding from the likes of existing life pass holders and others involved with the mountain.

He said there were three other bids by former directors of RAL, with one bid for both skifields and the other two for Turoa.

A file shot of skiers at the base of the former Waterfall Express chairlift at Ruapehu’s Whakapapa skifield.

It was unclear when the successful bidder would be announced.

Peter Hillary, Edmund Hillary’s son, has a long association with skiing and mountaineering in the area and said in a statement he was happy to be the association’s patron.

“Great days on the mountain breed an advocacy for its preservation and for its utility as a great ski/board destination for tens of thousands of passionate mountain people,” he said.

Jason Platt said, the key difference between the association and other bidders is, “they are private, aiming to take profit out of the mountain. We are a co-operative aiming to direct most profit back into the mountain.”

The association’s statement said it favoured “a community ownership model where profits are reinvested into maintaining and developing the public areas, not paid out in dividends.”

It said “surveys tell us the community has a strong preference to retain both skifields as community-owned operations.

“The vision for the [association] is to have the operations owned by the community and mana whenua.”